Instructions for Linux

(WIP)

Install WINE through your package manager of choice. Double click Transcendence.exe to run the game or right-click and select “Open with WINE Program Loader”.

A known issue with Transcendence v1.3 and above is that having the music enabled will cause the game to hang immediately when you attempt to run it. This can be fixed by going into your settings.xml file and disabling the music from there (set value from “true” to “false”).
Unfortunately settings.xml is automatically generated when running the game for the first time so if you do not already have one, you will need to acquire it elsewhere – it will not be generated if running for the first time on Linux. Try IRC or the forums.

Another known issue is that it is not possible to switch windows using ALT+TAB or similar – fix this by opening Wine Configurator, selecting Transcendence.exe from the list of programs on the main tab and then checking “Allow Window Manager to control the window” in the Graphics tab. Presto!

X11 or XQuartz – X11 should be installed with your OS if you have 10.5 (Leopard) or 10.6 (Snow Leopard). Apple ceased development on X11, and the XQuartz project picks up where they left off, providing many useful bugfixes and compatibility enhancements.

Internet Connection – The installation process will download files from the Internet.

Install Wine

Install MacPorts

MacPorts is a package manager for Mac, similar to Apt or Yum for Linux. It greatly simplifies the process of installing open source software on Mac, especially if it was originally written for Linux.

2. Open the DMG file you just downloaded, and double-click on the .pkg file contained within to run the MacPorts installer.

Configure MacPorts

1. Open Terminal (it can be found by searching for “Terminal” in Spotlight, or by navigating to Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app in Finder). Most of the rest of this tutorial will take place in Terminal.

Install Wine

1. All you have to do to install Wine now is enter the following line in Terminal:

sudo port install wine

It will probably ask you for your password again. Enter it, and wait a while. It will print out a constant status log of what it's doing. When you're presented with a blank and ready prompt, it should be done, unless errors were noted prior to the prompt.

Install Transcendence in Wine

Download Transcendence

Once downloaded, unzip the archive by double-clicking it in the Finder. This will produce a folder named Trans### (where the ### represents the version number, such as '101' or '106a').

Copy Files

Open a new Finder window.

While the Finder is active, the top menu bar should display a Go menu. Open the menu and select “Go to Folder.”

In the resulting window, type the following:

~/.wine/drive_c/program files

This will open the directory where Wine stores installed applications within your user folder. You cannot navigate to it normally because it is a hidden folder.

Copy the Trans### folder from its current resting place where you unzipped it, and put it in the Program Files directory you just opened.

Run Transcendence

Run Transcendence from Terminal

Simply open Terminal and enter the following command:

wine ~/.wine/drive_c/program\ files/Trans101/Transcendence.exe

Replace “Trans101” with the name of the Transcendence folder you placed in the Program Files directory in the previous step.

Wrap it Up in an .app Package

Here are a few Transcendence Launcher applications to streamline the process. You get a basic icon, which allows you to run the game from your Dock, and (maybe) never have to open the Terminal again.

TransLaunch.app – This one is for if you named the application folder “Transcendence” during the file copy step.

TransLaunch101.app – This one is for if you left the application folder named “Trans101” during the file copy step.

TransLaunch106a.app – This one is for if you left the application folder named “Trans106a” during the file copy step.

After download, unzip the .zip file, copy the .app to your Applications directory (or wherever you want to keep it), and drag it from there to your dock fo quick, easy access.

Edit the .app Package

To edit these for other versions (past, present, or future), right-click the .app and choose “Show Package Contents,” then open the Contents folder, followed by the Resources folder, and finally the Scripts folder. Double-click main.scpt to open it in AppleScript Editor.

simply change the filepath specified to wherever the Transcendence.exe you want to launch is located. Having multiple .app launchers with different names and different filepaths specified within the main.scpt file is an elegant way to launch multiple versions of Transcendence for testing or Extension compatibility.

Installing and using Extensions with Transcendence on Wine

To install any extensions you wish to use with Transcendence, create a new folder named “Extensions” within the Transcendence directory (within the Wine Program Files directory you copied it to) and copy the extension into this Extensions folder.